Japan soldiers enter Iraq

Japanese troops entered Iraq from Kuwait yesterday to begin Japan's most controversial deployment since World War II.

An advance party of soldiers that will prepare the ground for the deployment of about 1000 troops crossed the border about 12.50pm local time in a 12-vehicle convoy.

The dispatch marks a historic shift away from Japan's purely defensive postwar security policy and poses a huge political risk for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose government could be rocked if, as many expect, casualties occur.

The troops will be based in the mainly Shiite southern city of Samawa, where they will conduct reconstruction and humanitarian operations.

The arrival of the Japanese troops came soon after thousands of Iraqi Shia Muslims marched in Baghdad to demand an elected government, as US and Iraqi officials prepared to ask the UN Secretary-General to endorse American plans for transferring power in Iraq.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been reluctant for the United Nations to play a greater role in Iraq until Washington agrees to give the UN a greater role and until he is convinced the country is safe.

Emphasising those dangers, 20 people were killed and more than 60 injured when a suicide bomber blew up a truck on Sunday at a gate to the headquarters compound of the occupation authority in Baghdad.

Also on Sunday, a bomb in the southern city of Karbala killed one person and injured many.